Heroes don't work

May 1987 at Villanova College, Brisbane

In late 1970s Brisbane, as a young rebel, a university student and a St Vincent de Paul youth activist, I was busy philosophizing and working to change the world.  Obviously, I never succeeded, but they were great times and I shared them with some great people, who stay with me until today.  

One was Noel Hackett.  I met Noel through the St Vincent de Paul Society.  He was then Fr Noel Hackett, an Augustinian, teaching at Villanova College, Coorparoo, in southside Brisbane.  Being a northsider myself and having gone to school with the Christian Brothers, it was all new and foreign territory for me.  Noel's connection with young Vincent de Paulers was his love for the poor and his passion for serving them, even wanting to live with them.  

These are my first and lasting memories of Noel, along with his hearty laugh, love for life and people, and his open and meaningful friendship.  For a young rebel like me, searching vigorously for a social justice cause in the Catholic Church, I naturally became attached to Noel and that attachment has stayed with me until the day he died - Friday 8th December.            

Noel introduced me to his Order.  I will not say that I joined because of him, as that is unfair to him.  Rather, he was my entree.  He let me see that you could be a priest and religious in the institutional church, and live out your passion.  As for Noel, my passion has been for the underdog, the battler, the struggler, the little people in life and church.  They matter.  In our ways, Noel and I shared that.  Noel showed me that you could live out that passion, even in the Church.  

In 1981, I went on to join the Order, went away to study and then returned to Australia for ordination, where Noel was there to greet me.  By then, he was more active than ever in his quest to live out his love for the poor, being in our inner-city parish in Melbourne.  

We ever shared, plotted and planned.  He preached at my first mass in 1987.  I remember his words, using the image of the tree, with its roots firmly planted in the soil, while reaching up to the sky.  Then, a couple of years later, he rang me to tell me he was leaving the Order.  I was shocked.  My first thought was -  "My hero!  What will I do?"  That was all about me.  I now had to learn to act for myself, not depend on heroes.  

Still, Noel remained my hero.  He lashed out so as to live his love and passion for life and the poor more than ever.  He did it.  I would meet him whenever and wherever I could.  I stayed with him in smelly men's hostels.  We had meals in left leaning areas of urban Melbourne and Sydney.   We stuck together.  

The it was my turn to lash out.  In 2005, I left Australia for what became My Bangkok, where I do what I can to live out that love and passion, which Noel and I shared. I had to do it; I had to show that I could be as brave as Noel and do something lasting in my life, that gave witness to that young rebel, whom I kept talking about with Noel.  Well, I did it in some funny way, but never alone.  Yes, I did it as a personal stance, but Noel remained ever the hero, even if back in Australia.  So I could say in My Bangkok - "We did it". 

Heroes don't work, but occasionally they do.   Thanks, Noel, good hero, ever my mate!  Stay close with God and all of us.